Volunteers for Israel dig into new program starting this fall

Volunteering in Israel ^ | 8/7/2018 | unknown

[Patriot777]

Volunteers for Israel, a 36-year-old nonprofit organization that encourages American Jews to lend their services to help the Jewish state, announces a new pilot program that tacks on archaeology to its endeavors from Nov. 18 to Dec. 1.

The 14-day program starts with one week of volunteering on an Israeli army base, followed by a week volunteering at an active archaeological-dig site supervised by the Israel Antiquities Authority at the foot of Tel Assar in the Haifa district, focusing on relics that date back to 3,500 BCE.

The site covers the Chalcolithic period, or Copper Age, which was an era of transition between the stone tool-using farmers of the Neolithic and the metal-obsessed civilizations of the Bronze Age. It began in the late fifth millennium BCE and lasted for 1,000 years before it gave rise to the Early Bronze Age (approximately 4,300 to 3,300 BCE).

The Tel Assar excavation began in May of this year with about 300 archaeologists and workers.

Program manager and Volunteers for Israel board member Steve Plotkin said the dig came out of “both a need and desire to expand the scope and interest of the overall experience. We fully expect that it will succeed.”

The all-inclusive program, open to people of all ages, covers digging and excavation tools. Work hours are from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Sunday to Thursday, with no activity on Shabbat.

[Patriot777]

For this morning's Bible Study I was continuing my reading in Isaiah, now into Chapters 36 & 37, where Sennacherib king of Assyria has already attacked and captured the fortified cities of Judah, and is threatening King Hezekiah. In Isaiah 37:12(KJV),"Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Go'zan, and Ha'ran, and Re'zeph, and the children of Eden which were in Te-las'ar?" (NIV "Tel Assar") I believe the Lord is speaking of Eden here, and where it actually is. This archaeological dig that is being undertaken at the foot of Tel Assar in the Haifa district, supervised by the Israel Antiquities Authority, may very well turn up some very exciting finds! When I was in my 20's I so much wanted to visit Israel for a long time, visit the historical sites and volunteer at a kibbutz and an archaeological dig. Although in my 50's now and disabled, if it is the Lord's will, it may still happen--and I know my husband will enjoy it too.